The Crucible of Xuccara
by Jynxed1
Summary: A tragic glimpse into the life and trials of the cursed girl Xuccara.
1. Chapter 1

"Shit," she whispered as the spicy tuna roll escaped the chopsticks' grasp and plunged with abandon into the tiny cup of soy sauce waiting beneath. A splash more powerful than Magikarp's birthed a dark brown stain on the front of her blouse. Growing cancerously yet unnoticeably against the black fabric, the blot upset her more than it should have, causing her to stand up briskly and exit the restaurant without paying. No one noticed her departure, though, as she was not that noticeable of a person to begin with.

Xuccara was aggressively plain. She had hair, of course, since a lack thereof would've at least been of note, but it was so inconsequential that even if one were to ask a member of her family its color, they would be left dumbfounded. The one posing the question would probably have a similar reaction, actually, due to Xuccara's family having been dead for years. Exactly how long ago they died was something not even the girl herself knew since she had been told when she was very young that they had been gone long before her birth. The impossibility of such a statement was lost on her since along with being homely she was also an idiot, to put it nicely.

Keeping her gaze to the sidewalk as she plodded along, Xuccara couldn't take her mind off the stain. Embarrassment was something she was used to but this dark blotch triggered anger in her deeper than any emotion had before, worsened by her lack of understanding as to why it caused her to feel that way. She couldn't wait to get home and talk to the one person who understood her. The person, as it turned out, was actually her Pokémon Jynx.

After being kicked out of the orphanage at the age of 12, Xuccara lived on the streets working as a prostitute. Months passed, seasons changed, but she had yet to make a PokéDollar. On the verge of giving up, she suddenly saw the most beautiful woman in the region: Jynx. Due to her psychic abilities the gorgeous Pokémon was able to notice Xuccara and she instantly pitied her. She brought her home and hired her as a live-in maid, but their bond grew steadily and Jynx began to treat her like a daughter.

"Jynx," Xuccara cried, bursting through the door, "I made a boo-boo." Tears started squirting forth like salty lasers, soaking her already drenched shirt.

"Just when I thought you couldn't possibly get any stupider," Jynx cooed lovingly, "you prove me wrong again. What happened this time?"

"I spilled a sushi," she wept, pointing to the invisible stain.

"You can't even see it, idiot," Jynx responded, "and what were you even doing down at that restaurant? Who let you in?"

Xuccara had been permanently banned from Korma City Sushi months ago for repeatedly making a mess and running out without paying the bill. That day she had been let in by a new waiter who hadn't yet been made aware of her antics. That waiter, in fact, was the reason she had ventured back for the forbidden sushi in the first place. His name was Kuso and he had just moved to the Tinja region from Sinnoh with his mother and his Combee. Xuccara thought that was kind of a gay Pokémon for a boy to have but she ignored it due to his classically good looks. She knew she had to have him, but now was worried that any chance had been ruined all thanks to that slippery sushi roll.

"It was that boy, then, wasn't it?" Jynx said, having read Xuccara's mind. "You know he doesn't even notice you. You're not in any way attractive."

"I know I'm not as beautiful as you, Jynx," she began, "but I have a good personality." She didn't.

"Stop being stupid and do you chores. I'll go pay your bill and make sure they never let you back there again," Jynx exclaimed as she put on her nicest hat and went out the door.

"This darn stain," Xuccara thought as she sat on the floor, frantically scrubbing the mark that was as negligible as her. If she had been cleverer she might've stopped to wonder why this particular thing bothered her so much, but she never did. She did, however, stop to think about her new love Kuso and how she might win him over.


	2. Chapter 2

"Combee," Combee squeaked as Kuso lay in bed staring at the ceiling. He sighed and rolled over, ignoring the triple bee abomination whose incessant buzzing was beginning to give him a headache. He had never wanted a Combee due to the obvious reason that it was far too gay a Pokémon for anyone to have, let alone the most attractive boy in Sinnoh.

"If only I had been born plain," he thought to himself, "then maybe I wouldn't have had to leave home." That was the reason he chose to believe, anyway. Combee was now sitting on his face, wiggling about, antennae twitching, hoping to wake up his master. Kuso suddenly sat up and threw the annoying bug against the wall.

"I want my old Pokémon back," he complained, but that was something he knew was impossible. He finally got out of bed and walked over to his dresser, pulling out his work uniform. He had just gotten a job at the only restaurant in town since luckily the owner hadn't heard of his family. Kuso got dressed and stumbled over to his mirror to get ready, but he found it hard to even look at himself.

Back in Sinnoh Kuso was a promising trainer. Many regarded him as the most attractive and powerful trainer in the region, even, but this wasn't enough for him. He and his partner Pidgeot earned all the badges and made their way through the Elite Four, but during the champion battle something happened: he lost. He had never in his life done anything but win, so obviously Kuso didn't take this very well and in that moment he had a psychological break. His eyes glazed and he mounted his Pidgeot, attacking the champion until she was dead, blood and gross inside bits strewn about the arena.

When the Officer Jennies arrived they found him curled up in the corner, naked and crying. Pidgeot was eating the remains of the champion and had to be put down immediately. The piercing sound of the gunshot and the thud of his best friend's body hitting the ground snapped Kuso back into reality. He was arrested on the spot but deemed mentally unfit to stand trial. After years of psychotherapy he was no longer considered a threat to society, but he was forbidden from owning a Pokémon and from participating in any region's Pokémon League for the rest of his life. After fighting this ruling, the judge allowed Kuso to have one Pokémon in his possession: a male Combee. Unable to cope with the stigma, his mother decided to move them all to Tinja, a relatively small region with no league or gyms.

Fortunately for him and his family no one in Korma City had a television so they had never heard their sordid tale. As Kuso left the house for his first day on the job, he said goodbye to his mother. She didn't respond.

"You're going to have to talk to me one day," he said coldly and slammed the door. His mother wasn't a bad person, no, but she was both blind and deaf, something that Kuso had failed to realize his whole life due to being concerned with more important things like himself.

"Bye, Kuso!" she chirped after she felt the vibrations from the door, but he was already gone. It wasn't a long walk to work but by the time he got there he was already perspiring. He had always considered himself an outcast due to society being jealous of his good looks and immense talent, but that feeling worsened after the Pidgeot incident, and now whenever he went into town he would break out in a nervous sweat.

"You must be Kuso. Wow, you're so sexy!" the owner of the Korma City Sushi, a stereotypical fat Italian man named Sterco, exclaimed upon seeing his new hire. Kuso was as used to this reaction as Sterco was to sexual harassment suits, so nothing seemed odd at all about this statement to them. Sterco's wife, however, overheard this and took an immediate dislike to the foreign heartthrob. After a few hours of typical busboy work, he heard a meek voice calling from the front of the restaurant.

"Excuse me," the voice said. Kuso looked up and saw a plain girl standing in the door. Her hair was the color of hair and her face looked like a face he may have seen before or maybe not. Her eyes shone like eyes in a restaurant and she was dressed as though she were wearing clothes, which she was.

"Sorry," Kuso apologized, unintentionally seducing her with his words; "I didn't notice you there." This girl, Xuccara, was used to such a situation, but she had definitely noticed him since she had been stalking him from the moment he arrived in town.

"It OK," she reassured despite her lack of basic English skills, "I want a sushi, please." She made her best attempt at a curtsy but farted halfway down without seeming to notice. Kuso just cringed and led her to a table in the back, far away from the other customers. Halfway through her meal he came to check on her but she had already left, her plate of sushi overturned and the entire stack of napkins ripped up and thrown on the floor.

"You shouldn't have let her in," Sterco scolded after seeing the mess.

"Who is she? What's her problem?" Kuso asked deeply.

"That's Xuccara. Let's just say she's not the sharpest Jigglypuff in the bunch," he responded, proving himself to be the same.

"She's banned from this restaurant," Sterco's wife berated, seeing her chance to get Kuso out of the picture, "so I'm sorry to say but you're fired."

"Fired?" Kuso and Sterco asked together.

"Yes," his wife answered. Kuso knew it was just because she was jealous of him. He had been dealing with this sort of thing his whole life and now his curse had followed him to his new home.

"Fine, I'll go, but you'll see me again," he said with a wink that caused Sterco's legs to go weak. Kuso left the restaurant and headed home, now curious about the plain girl they called Xuccara.


	3. Chapter 3

"Hello, Sterco," Jynx moaned, entering the restaurant. "I'm really sorry about earlier. You know how Xuccara gets."

"It's OK, Jynx. I know she doesn't mean anything by it," he replied empathetically.

"Well here's the money for the bill and the damage," she said, holding out a wad of PokéDollars to the fat greasy Italian.

"Just go on in back and give it to my wife. She doesn't trust me with that sort of thing," he answered, pointing to the back room. Jynx floated over to the doorway and peeked her head in.

"Hi, Lada," she started, "I've brought the money for the bill. I'm really sorry about all this."

"Not to be rude but your girl's a complete idiot," Lada greeted amiably.

"Well I would hate to hear you be rude, then," Jynx sassed, "but you're right. I just don't know what to do with her."

"Kick her out! Send her back to the orphanage. Believe me, Korma City wouldn't be as shitty with her gone," she suggested nicely.

"Well, she's 20 so I don't think she can go to an orphanage. Plus, she's not allowed back there anyway," the sensual Pokémon confessed.

"I'm not surprised. What'd she do to get kicked out, anyway?" Lada questioned.

Jynx paused for a second then lied, "I don't know."

* * *

Xuccara's first memories were of that orphanage. She knew of nothing beyond the dank walls and broken windows of her home and never thought she would. She only had one friend who went by the name of Carrie. If there was one person in the world that the other orphans understood less than Xuccara, it was Carrie, but this was mostly due to her being imaginary.

The foolish orphan couldn't comprehend why the other girls would tease her and ignore Carrie. What made her so much more of a target than Carrie? Slowly she became suspicious that her delusive gal pal wasn't really as loyal as she pretended to be. She had to make sure, though, before confronting her.

She spent the next several weeks watching Carrie without her knowledge. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary at first: she did her chores, played with dolls, brushed her teeth, and practiced choreographed dance routines like usual, but Xuccara was positive something was amiss. The girls still tormented her but gave no trouble to Carrie. It was bizarre.

One day, however, her constant surveillance finally paid off. It was lunchtime and Xuccara was making her way to the table with her mound of chicken fingers when suddenly she noticed something odd about her enemies' table: Carrie was there. The leader of the group, a blonde brat named Suka, was telling a joke about how Xuccara dressed. The joke itself was flawed due to there being a strict orphanage dress code, but Suka's audience didn't seem to care. Everyone was laughing at the idiotic orphan's outfit, including her supposed best friend Carrie.

Xuccara was furious. She had never felt such rage and didn't know how to control it. The mesa of chicken fingers she had been holding crashed to the floor with a resounding cluck that drew everyone's attention. Carrie stared in horror as her friend's hair began to rise dramatically, defying all laws of nature, which is really saying something considering they lived in the Pokémon world. Suddenly she locked eyes with Suka and let out a piercing shriek.

"Shit!" the brat screamed as she stood up and frantically left the room, covering her behind with her hands.

"Eww! What's that smell?" another girl cried, pointing to a trail of excrement leading out the door from where Suka sat.

"Shit!" Carrie cried, although no one heard her because, again, she was imaginary. One after another, though, the girls from Suka's group screamed and ran from the room in embarrassment of the dark brown stains that grew vivaciously on their bottoms.

"What's going on?" the headmistress shouted once the stench had wafted to her room. "What's the meaning of all this?"

"She did it!" Carrie shrieked, pointing to Xuccara, who was now crying in a ball on the floor.

"That's it, you freak. Take your shit and get out!" she commanded. Sobbing, she ran out of the orphanage and into the world she had never thought she'd be a part of. That was the last time any of the girls saw Xuccara. Rumor has it that Suka pooped her pants so hard that her colon prolapsed and she died, but Carrie was the one who said it so it's difficult to determine the statement's validity.

After Jynx picked up Xuccara, she tried to get answers out of her, but all memories of the event were gone. The gorgeous Pokémon traveled to the orphanage but upon learning the truth she vowed never to tell her secret. She feared what might happen if the girl knew what immense power she held.

* * *

"What was that?" Lada asked suddenly.

"What was what?" Jynx answered, snapping back to reality.

"You just, like, stared at the wall for a good five minutes without saying anything," she explained. "I thought you were having a stroke or something."

"Ha," Jynx giggled nervously, "just daydreaming, really. You know us Psychic types!"

"No," she replied honestly, nor did she care. She had been done with the conversation for a while and was now just waiting for the drag queen Pokémon to leave so she could get back to being generally unpleasant.

"Well, I'm off, then," she sang as Jynx do, "and hopefully next time we see each other it'll be under different circumstances."

"Yeah, it'd better be," Lada said politely and slammed the door.

It would.


	4. Chapter 4

She felt the hard ground beneath her prostrated body but she couldn't smell anything. She took one more breath and then rolled over to look up at the sun which had been baking her since she had woken up in this seemingly eternal field, but she sighed when all she was met with was a sky like a cyan sheet pulled taut over her flat white-girl ass. No clouds, no sun, yet there was light. She was definitely outside, though, since even she could recognize that plants and dirt don't usually belong in the house. She watched as the leaves of a single cyprus tree rustled, disturbed by a wind that she didn't hear or feel. Xuccara couldn't remember coming here but she knew her mental capacities were about on par with Slowbro's so she didn't think too much of it. She stood and shook her blouse to free all the nature that had accumulated on it during her attempt at osmosis with the earth, but none of it budged. She looked for the soy stain and sighed again, though this time with relief as the splotch had miraculously vanished.

The plain girl plodded to the cyprus tree despite knowing that it probably didn't have the ability to send her back home. It was the only tree around, though, so she figured she'd at least be polite and introduce herself. As she trudged on she began to notice that her progress toward the Mediterranean colossus that seemed out of place in the Pokémon world was negligent at best. Confused she gazed as the leaves on the runaway tree began to shake more violently yet somehow more silently. Xuccara turned away to see how far the field went in the other direction but the ground just seemed to fade into the distance. Even more disturbing, though, was the fact she could still see the folded grass from where she had been lying not more than a yard behind her. When it comes to idiots usually confusion manifests itself as anger, but before Xuccara even got a chance to start wilding out, the sky decided to begin behaving as one would expect if the sun had gone.

The darkness began booming with thunder even though it only had 70% accuracy in normal weather conditions. This rate promptly rose to 100%, though, and sharp drips of water began pummeling the lost girl and the arid soil. The drops didn't slide off her body, instead staying at their points of impact, weighing her down as she stood there like an idiot. Now, underneath trees isn't usually the safest place to wait out a thunderstorm, but Xuccara felt herself weakening from her stubborn watery burden so she began marching again. With each step, though, the earth beneath her feet became more and more saturated, turning suddenly into sticky brown mud. This mud was the first scent her nose had picked up since reviving in the unknown field with the single cyprus, but it wasn't a pleasant odor. Her behemoth feet sank deeper with each step and soon she was up to her chapped lips with putrid mahogany slush. Before her eyes sank below the surface she took one more glance at the cyprus. Lightning flashed, illuminating the giant and highlighting its sudden lack of leaves and unnaturally kinked posture, but the mystery was lost on Xuccara as the tip of her pate became tucked away under the surface. She kept her eyes open, knowing this might be the last time she'd use them, knowing that soon her lungs would simultaneously betray and satisfy her instinct to survive. Her maw fell agape as she quickly became all too familiar with the consequences of a pulmonate existence, sucking in the umber muck that quickly coagulated in her respiratory system, blocking any passages through which air could travel to perform its duty.

"Well, this just bullshit," she mused, but she was only half right. Her osmosis had completed but no more than a nanosecond transpired after her death before she gasped and sat up again, shaking nervously and brushing off nonexistent flora.

She looked around and realized she was in her bedroom lying on the faux wooden flooring. She couldn't recall why she had decided to take a nap there since she usually preferred to sleep on comfortable pieces of furniture but she didn't think too much of it. She knew she had been having blackouts since leaving the orphanage but lately they had become more frequent.

"Wow, dreams sure was spooky," she said out loud to no one since she was the only one in the room but even if there were people they probably wouldn't be listening to her anyway. She struggled to recall the details of her nightmare but all had escaped save for the feeling of the brown slush enveloping her. She shook it off and looked at the clock; Jynx had left an hour ago so Xuccara knew that her return was imminent. She spazzed anxiously to the window so that she wouldn't miss watching Jynx's sexy signature walk that elicited both awe and envy from the plain girl. She wanted to be just like Jynx.

As soon as her beloved guardian appeared over the hill, Xuccara lit up. The excitement faded just as quickly as it came, though, when she noticed Kuso and Combee determinedly approaching the purple Pokémon. Xuccara couldn't hear anything but she watched as the two boys caught up to Jynx and began a conversation. Each time the pair shared a laugh the anger and resentment grew exponentially in Xuccara's body until her eyes began to lose focus. She started growling involuntarily, the feeling of the dream slush returning and holding her hostage. Everything went black.

A piercing scream penetrated the panes of glass before Xuccara and snapped her back to reality. She knew the cry to be Jynx's so she rubbed her eyes vigorously to refocus and peered back out to where the trio had been standing. She stared for a moment in shock at what had caused the Pokémon to shriek before echoing the sentiments, cuing Jynx to glare at the window through which Xuccara had transgressed. As soon as their gazes met Xuccara dropped down below the window out of vision, feeling guilty even though she knew what had happened couldn't possibly have been her fault. Jynx, however, knew otherwise.


End file.
